This week we went through the process of creating and editing an audio file and turning it into a Podcast, the software used to edit our audio isAudacity. I have used this software before but as that was many years ago, I used Niall’s slides to become familiar with all of it again.

Converting the file

In order to upload my audio file to Audacity I needed to convert the file type from an MA4 to an MP3. In order to do this I needed to download audio-converter software. I used Lame that was recommended by Audacity. This was a lot simpler then I thought it would be, once you locate the file and upload it to Audacity it really does the rest of the work for you. Let the fun begin….

Editing

I started by trimming down my audio by selecting the parts at the beginning and end of the audio I did not need to keep, you can only do this in sections so I started with the beginning, highlighted it and then using the trim tool I trimmed it down. This was repeated throughout the audio file to insure there were not too many silent pauses through out.

I also took a look at the panning and volume tools in order to make sure the sound of my audio were at the right levels.

The next thing I did was to use the Noise Removal tool – in order to do this first you must take a sample of the noise within the audio, after you have done this you highlight the entire audio clip and select the noise removal tool. By taking this step you remove the hissing sound from your audio clip and any additional interference.

The next step was to insert silence at the beginning and the end of the clip. This was done to give the podcast a more professional feel.

I enjoyed the editing process but it was difficult to get the hang of it. While somethings were easy others were harder. I got some help from members of the class who showed me how to do different things.

Uploading

For me the hardest part was trying to upload my podcast to the blog on an RSS feed, you have to use Podomatic in order to upload your podcast before you can put it into WordPress. The video our lecturer posted was extremely helpful with this but I had to do it a couple of times before it worked. This may be due to the fact that sometimes WordPress takes a while to update or refresh. But anyway now its done and I am quite happy with the result. I would definitely be interested in doing more podcasts in the future so it would be worth getting some better recording equipment and becoming more familiar with Audacity.

To listen to my final edit click on the image below, sit back and get ready to laugh…